The CARBAT project proposes calcium based rechargeable batteries to be a Future and Emerging Technology (FET) helping to solve some of the Grand Challenges our modern society is facing: pollution, oil-dependency, and climate change. Today transportation contributes to >25% of the total CO₂ emissions globally and while electrification of the sector is on-going still <1% of cars run on batteries, mainly due to issues of cost and driving ranges feasible (energy density limited). 

Batteries based on Ca have promise of leap-frog increase in energy densities and are especially attractive as Ca is the 5th most abundant element on Earth’s crust. The main objective of CARBAT builds on this breakthrough and is to achieve proof-of-concept for a Ca anode rechargeable battery with > 650 Wh/kg and > 1400 Wh/l.CARBAT will accomplish this by combining scientific efforts and excellence in computational screening, solid-state and coordination chemistry, materials science, electrochemistry, and battery engineering, and apply this to:

1. Develop cathode active materials operating at 4 V and with capacities of 200-300 mAh/g
2. Optimize electrolyte formulations for fast Ca²⁺ transport (>1 mS/cm)
3. Assembly of 100 mAh full cell demonstrators integrating such materials which will be validated and benchmarked vs. the state-of-the-art Li-ion technology using performance and sustainability indicators.

In this April's meeting, all the involved partners from the four institutions working in the project went to the meeting, in which the first six months of work were discussed. Laura Cabana, presented the work related to Management, IPR and Communication (Project collaborative platform, the Project Quality Plan, the Data Management Plan, the Communication and dissemination Plan and the project website). Elena Arroyo, from Universidad Complutense de Madrid, presented the work conducted related to Cathode development. Patrik Johansson, from Chalmers, presented the results on Electrolyte Development and Rafael Barros presented a "Literature review of Ca conducting electrolytes." The next project meeting will be on October 2018 in Brussels.

Project website: https://projects.icmab.es/carbat/

Follow the activities of this project on Twitter: @CARBAT_FETOPEN 

 'CARBAT project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme H2020-FETOPEN-1-2016-2017 (CARBAT, grant agreement No 766617).'